Martial Arts: Lessons Learned Along the Way

By Diego Aragona and Tom Wheeler

This is a collection of essays based on my 40 years experience in the martial arts. They are intended to cause the reader to think and spark conversation and debate rather than give absolute answers. To teach is to challenge and this collection will hopefully do just that. These esays are also intended to help martial artists from all styles and schools to better understand one another.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 23, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462829149

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Copyright © 2009 by Tom Wheeler with Diego Aragona.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

21st Century Kungfu

Right tool for the right job

Path of Self Discovery

The art of disguising the art

Eighty/Twenty

Mind and Body

It has to be You to be True

The Real Trick

Chivalry and Bushido: a look at the codes of a warrior

From Blades to Knuckles: Settling disputes without killing each other

Combat as Entertainment

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Redefining Teachers

The Western Way

The Way of the Bow

Appendices

Meet Tom Wheeler

Meet Diego Aragona

Glossary

Preface

I want to acknowledge with deep gratitude that this work would not exist without the urging, guidance, mentoring and writing input from my friend and student, Diego Aragona. Without him I could not have done it.

I would also like to thank my martial arts instructors and mentors, Fred Kelly of Chitoryu Karate in Longwood, FL and Scott Bray of Tai Chi for Health and Self Defense in Orlando, FL. Of all the teachers that I have trained with over the years, these two gentlemen were and continue to be the most influential. Their teachings and example made me the martial artist that I am today. I trained with Sensei Kelly in the 1970’s when I was in my formative years. It was he who first gave me the idea that my karate should come from me and not be an imitation of his. I didn’t fully understand that back then but later, when I met Sifu Bray in the 1990’s and he taught the exact same idea in his taiji quan class; I came to realize the truth of the matter. This may seem obvious to many, but I did not encounter this concept in any other teachers I had known over the years. Where many would say, No, it must look like this! Sifu Bray would say Now make it make sense to you.

Last but really first I would like to thank my wife Trish, for all of her support and patient understanding. The term Black Belt Widow has been used many times over the years to refer to the wives of martial artists left alone while their husbands were off training. My wife was an inspiration and a fertile source of reflection. It helps that she is also a martial artist, although they serve a different purpose in her life than mine. Nevertheless, if you are an artist of any kind it helps to marry someone of like mind!

Introduction

I began my martial arts journey at the age of 12 in 1969. I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood where the kids were tough and the parents were tougher. In the sixties in our neighborhood if your father gave you a time out, it meant how long were you out after he hit you. Luckily for me, my father was not such a man; he was a pacifist. My father’s pacifism was born of World War II, and his experiences in Europe. So, into this neighborhood I was born, with a father who refused to teach me how to defend myself because he didn’t want me fighting.

I can only make educated guesses about why the bullies in my neighborhood picked on the other kids. I’ll leave that to the psychologists. For whatever reason, those of us who were weaker and smaller were the target of harassment, physical attack and the loss of our lunch or lunch money.

In an effort to stop this cycle of harassment I asked my parents to let me attend the local Police Athletic League or Boy’s Club to study boxing. During the time of debate and begging that ensued a youth minister visited our church for a summer program, his catch to attract an audience of young people and keep their attention was karate. Watching the self-defense demonstrations of this smallish man in white pajamas as he easily defeated the larger men of our congregation had an effect on me. Since I was not a large boy and definitely not strong, I began to wonder if perhaps karate was a better choice for me than boxing, where skill was important but size and strength were definitely parts of the equation. The begging changed from boxing to karate. When my parents finally relented we began to search for a dojo. In 1969 there were not many choices in Orlando, Florida. We were lucky though and found the dojo of one William Liquori, Sensei of the USA Goju system. My journey began.

For me, at that time, there was no question as to the purpose of martial arts, self defense plain and simple. However, something interesting happened shortly after I began my journey, I discovered how much I enjoyed the training. I never enjoyed working out per se, even later when I play football in high school; however, the exercises and techniques of karate training were different. This is not to say that they were easy, by no means, they were hard and required a lot of concentration and were quite fatiguing. It’s just that they were different, inexplicably and wonderfully different. Although my focus of training was changing and eventually took a direction I had not anticipated, I never consciously changed my mind on the purpose of martial arts, self defense.

As times changed the karate world made certain accommodations so